First Wedding | Tips? How should I be prepared?

[12sndsgood]

I'm going to throw in some of my tips from what I learned at my first wedding a few months ago. I know the feeling. youlle start feeling like you can handle it and get excited about doing it, then when it gets close youlle start freaking out a bit lol. A lot of good information has been passed out by people with way more experience then me. but this is what I did and learned from.


1. I would look at contacting the couple themselves now. ask to meet with them. find out what is most important to them. find out what they would like to see they may only expect so much but that doesnt mean you can't try blow them away. I went into my wedding not even wanting to do weddings, but after I was done I realised it is something i could possibly do in the future if i needed to. and starting off with a happy couple is a great way to go. Just get to know them. who they are, how they act. mabye even offer to do a engagement shoot to get more time with them.

2. contract. I know its been said a few times. but its important. They may not be expecting much, but what about there parents? will there parents accept the fact your a rookie doing it for free if something happens? cover your ass no matter what.

3. equipment. for our church i walked in and thought, okay this lighting is pretty good. then when i pulled the camera out and started taking test shots before you know it, im sitting at iso 3200 at 1/50th a sec at 3.0 and i go "okay, maybe the light isnt as great as i thought.

4. benefit of getting to know the couple is possibly asking them if you can be there for the rehearsal. this gave me a chance to get to the church, get shots of them on the alfter and find out ahead of time what sort of light i was looking at. gave me a chance to realiase my D3000 for backup was going to be about worthless. but at least i new ahead of time.

5. when your talking with the bride and groom get the families figured out for the portraits so you know who is getting photos and the groupings. and letting them know that they are in charge and if there are any issues you will come to them. work on the time frame. that was a big thing for us. figuring out at what time we were getting what shots how much time we thought we would have and so on. if you dont talk to them about it, they may not think about it and when the day comes you dont have a good feelign for what is happening and when you have time for things. and be willing to adjust on the fly because no wedding runs according to plan.

6. maybe see if you can find a friend who wants some wedding experience to come along as a 2nd shooter for experience. just someone else to help cover the action and possibly cover your butt. I hired my buddy to 2nd shoot with me and he caught some action i missed. for instance, coming out of the church I was finishing some shots and was rushing out to beat the bride and groom coming out where everyone throws the birdseed at them. in my rush my hand hit my setting adjustment and nocked into user settign instead of manual and my half a dozen shots of that for me were total junk. blurred mess. my buddy had been out there and ready so he got those shots. just added protection.


7 If you get to the church before hand look around find out some nice shots you'd like to get and write them down because you will forget about them when the day comes. write down the important shots as well. I forgot to get the rings. Yep doesn't seem like something you'd forget. but when you up in the morning and running nonstop all day long things can get forgotten. so write them down. and have the list with you to run thru.


8 talk to the person performing the ceremony. relying on flash won't work if the officient forbids flash during the ceremony. introduce yoruself. let him know who you are. ask him if he has any requirements, find out what is okay and what is off limits.

9 know your path so your not getting in the way during the ceremony or after. the advantage of going to the rehearsal we got to see how they were running things and me and my buddy started figuring out where we wanted to be at certain times of the ceremony. esp when it comes to the kiss. you dont want to be off to the side and miss a good shot because you didnt realise it was to that point yet.

10. batteries were mentioned and that was one thing that got me. at the reception I had 20' high ceilings so i was heating my flash up quickly and overheating it. having to wait for it to cool down to continue shots. I had never been in situations where i was firing a lot of shots off and even coming close to overheating my flash. at the reception i probalby put it into cooldown mode 4 or 5 times. so something to think about.


hopefully most of that makes sence and thats just some of what I had picked up at my first wedding, definatly not an expert by any means.

 

[Designer]

will be indoors with what was said to be adequate lighting (we shall see...)

The term "adequate lighting" does not translate to photography. Usually that means people won't trip over small children on the way to the food table, but you should plan on bounced flash indoors (off camera if you have a bracket) and a softbox attachment for outdoors.

 

[pgriz]

As I mentioned in another thread, I've been to many weddings. The most professional teams (yes, there were always at least two) had pretty much all the key shots scripted and pre-planned, with the location(s) scouted out in advance. In THOSE weddings, the photography went smooth, the key parties knew what they had to do, where and when. In the others, the "pros" were trying to do the photo-ops on the fly, or they had really poor crowd-handling skills, as those shoots were chaotic (again, from a photography point-of-view).

 

[TCampbell]

As I mentioned in another thread, I've been to many weddings. The most professional teams (yes, there were always at least two) had pretty much all the key shots scripted and pre-planned, with the location(s) scouted out in advance. In THOSE weddings, the photography went smooth, the key parties knew what they had to do, where and when. In the others, the "pros" were trying to do the photo-ops on the fly, or they had really poor crowd-handling skills, as those shoots were chaotic (again, from a photography point-of-view).

I worked for many years doing wedding photography for a studio. We always had a photographer and a side-lighter. The flow of the wedding and the shots involved was well understood. Having a side-light creates some shadow to provide some dimensionality to the photos so they don't look flat but the two flashes wash out each other's "strong" shadows. Diffusers are pointless for shots taken from a distance. Only use them close-up. I personally used a "shoot through" umbrella that I would hold in front of the flash -- a proper softbox large enough to work well can also be cumbersome to use, so a shoot-through gives you the nice broad fabric to diffuse and the umbrella form-factor means you can pop it up and take it down quickly. I used a medium format (Hasselblad 500CM) camera with a prime lens -- no zooms (pre-digital days). Today zooms are popular -- just make sure the lenses are up to the task.

There was always a conversation with the bride & groom well in advance of the wedding so they knew what to expect, when we would show up, and what we'd be doing. The day can vary based on what the couple wants. Some brides want us to come to the house prior to the wedding. Others want us to go straight to the church.

In advance, we always knew things such as:

Where will be initial go and what time will we arrive (the house? the church? etc.)

What key guests will be present (e.g. both parents of the bride? both parents of the groom? grandparents? etc.) That's for planning the formal shots. There can be some "delicate" situations that need to be handed (e.g. for example... suppose the "parents" of the bride are actually divorced and don't really get along. Normally you'd take a photo of the bride & groom with the parents, but sometimes they divorced couples don't want to be in the same photo with each other... a mess yes, but these things happen in real life, and you need to know how to handle it. By discussing everything up front you'll call for the shots which are appropriate and that way there are no surprises.

Will there be a reception line? If so will it be at the church or at the hall?

Will there be a limo or any special transportation for the bride & groom?

Will the reception immediately follow the wedding or will their be a break in between?

Will there be a father/daughter dance?

Will there be a bouquet toss, garter toss, etc.

Often, YOU will be invited to eat with the guests... but not always.

You will ALSO frequently be invited to partake of the bar. Politely decline that... as it may adversely impact the quality of your results.

Discuss the location of the reception and scout it. If it's in a beautiful setting, you may have an opportunity to "borrow" the bride & groom for about 15 minutes for a quick shoot. This should be pre-planned up front (not on the fly.)

When you shoot the formals, start with the shots which include the parents and grandparents. The parents are the hosts of the reception and if the reception immediately follows the wedding, they need to be able to leave to head to the hall quickly. Thus... get their shots out of the way.

The more you know in advance, the easier it is to plan.

You generally may NOT use a flash "during" the "ceremony". The "ceremony" beings AFTER the question "Who gives this woman?" and the father of the bride replies "Her mother and I." At that point you are IN the ceremony... no flash. When the priest/minister/rabbi/officiant announces at the end that they would like to present "Mr. and Mrs. _____" and the couple is about to leave the alter, the ceremony is OVER. You may resume the use of your flash.

This means that during the ceremony you will need a nice LOW FOCAL RATIO lens (preferably an f/2.8... I have 70-200, and I also have a 135 f/2.) The rest of the time I have a 24-70 f/2.8. (but a full-frame camera so 24mm really is a wide angle).

You will need to be able to handle the guests who may get in your way. Be polite. I handled this by asking everyone to wait until they saw my flash go off TWICE (I take two shots) before they shoot. There are a number of reasons for this... everyone in the formals should be looking at YOUR camera and not at some guest. If the party doesn't know who to look at than everybody's photo will be bad. Also if your flash is triggered via light-slave you want to make sure nobody else's flash is going to trigger your flash and then your flash hasn't had time to cycle before you take the shot -- resulting in ruined shot for you. If the guests know that once you've taken your two shots that THEY will get their chance (and you'll wait) then they'll be a lot less likely to try to shoot while you're shooting. Just remember that the bride and groom are actually counting on YOUR photos turning out. They're not counting on anyone else. If a guests ruins the photos you're taking, they're really ruining the bride & grooms shots... these are their memories.

This is a fairy-tale day. Brides fantasize about this day from when they were little girls. Keep that in mind.

(hopefully I didn't typo too much... I wrote this in a hurry.)

 

[manaheim]

Wow.... NICE writeup.

 

[CCericola]

Buy the creative live class that Joe Buissink (sp) just did. He shoots mostly with just a speedlight and bounces off of walls, pillars or fat people wearing white shirts. He did J-Lo's last wedding.

 

[IByte]

Tis a good idea, don't wanna charge since it is my first wedding, but will keep this in mind and see what prices are like.

I'm confident I'll end up with decent and usable images they will like, but not to the caliber of a hired pro obviously.

Should I really consider renting a fast 2.8 24-70? What about the softbox for flash?

Glassandgear.com prices seem fair.

 

[pgriz]

:hail: Hoo boy... this thread should be a sticky for wanna-be wedding photographers - I am seriously impressed by the quantity of high quality input and real-world experience. In fact, macpro88 - maybe you'll like to smoosh all of this together and write a TPF manual (or at least checklist).:thumbsup:

 

[macpro88]

Man, I must have asked the right question the right way cause wow, these responses are golden.

Thank you so so so much guys and gals, and Campbell, in a hurry? I can't imagine a full length detailed write up but holy cow thank you so much.

Granted, the wedding isn't until November, so a lot of time to read up and really absorb and memorize all the great info provided here and to practice shooting.



And with all this great info... I kinda wish the date was a little sooner haha

again, thank you. thank you very much. this thread has exceeded my expectations in responses.

 

[bratkinson]

Somebody produced and/or linked to a great "wedding photo list" shots on this site about 2 months ago...maybe 3. When I was at my ex-stepdaughters' wedding 5 months ago, it was obvious to me that the real shooters had a checklist of what shots to get, who to have in the picture with B&G at the reception, etc.

As I'm of that age where I am slowly losing everything, including my memory, I'd probably forget to bring the checklist! Although I'll never (willingly) shoot another wedding, on a couple of trips I've taken and shot, I DO remember to print a list of what to do beforehand and what to take with me. Like: Charge all batteries, wipe all memory cards, check out/mount/test each lens, etc. Check off on the list as I pack each item, etc. At least I know I have with me everything (hopefully) that I'll need while I'm out shooting.

 

[chuasam]

Muck it up but warn them in writing that if you get rubbish pictures, it aint your fault

 

[12sndsgood]

Man, I must have asked the right question the right way cause wow, these responses are golden.

Thank you so so so much guys and gals, and Campbell, in a hurry? I can't imagine a full length detailed write up but holy cow thank you so much.

Granted, the wedding isn't until November, so a lot of time to read up and really absorb and memorize all the great info provided here and to practice shooting.



And with all this great info... I kinda wish the date was a little sooner haha

again, thank you. thank you very much. this thread has exceeded my expectations in responses.

no, take the time you have and just soak in as much information as you can. it will be here before you know it lol.

 

[sactown024]

TCCampbell, what a great write up, well done. I am shooting a wedding september 22nd as an assistant and I will be sure to use this info and relay it to the main photographer!

 

[kokonut]

Hi,
My husband was invited to a wedding to take some photos. He is not a pro wedding photographer but his friends had a low budget for the wedding and they liked a lot his pictures. So at the end they were really happy and they gave him a gift. I believe it is a good way to learn if people appreciate and like your pictures. If it is you first time it is OK if you go fir free but you need to stay professional and do your best best as you understand it it a very important day for your friends!